Day 1 AGAIN

Well as you can tell from the title of the post, I've been at this for a while. I was thin until age 25. At age 25 I started to put on weight. 30 pounds in 30 days to be exact. That was the beginning of the end. I went to my doctor at the time and he told me "some women just get fat at 25."  I didn't like this answer and decided to get schedule my annual exam with my OB/GYN.  The GYN found dysplasia of cervix. She was pretty adamant that this was serious and I needed a LEEP or LOOP procedure performed. I had the procedure performed and all was well, in general. Shortly after the procedure I started noticing other problems with memory, emotions, more weight gain, etc.  I thought I was going crazy so I made an appointment with a therapist. I had three visits with the therapist who told me she thought I was "normal" and should see another doctor and made a recommendation. I saw the other doctor and and he ran some blood tests.  While he didn't see anything significant he thought that perhaps my thyroid count was a little low. He said it was hard to tell since I had never had it tested prior to know what was "normal" for me. Well the low dose of thyroid medicine he prescribed made a world of difference. I was back to feeling like my old self as far as my memory and emotions, but the weight was still there and it was only going up, not down. To make a long story short I did all sorts of diets that worked in the short term and then I gained it all back plus some. I had the most success on the weight loss drug Redux. Sadly it was abused and taken off the market.

Now many years pass as I struggle with my weight up and down, up and down, up and down.... I am a size 12 when my mom is diagnosed with Alzheimer's. The first year was awful. I was working full time as a manager in a Fortune 500 company, going to my parents house at night to help care for my mother, and trying to live my life.  During this time I also meet a man. Thankfully he is very understanding. But wait.. there is more.. my job is outsourced. I now find a new job. The new job is ideal in some respects as I can work from home. During this time I also start suffering from pretty severe anxiety attacks. I completely give up on the weight loss and just try to deal with what life is throwing at me one day at a time.

Just ahead to today. I am 46 years old, weight 255 pounds. My mother has passed away. My father lives alone. I am married to the man I met earlier and have a wonderful 10 year old. I also have 2 rescue cats (one kitten and one elderly with a thyroid condition and in stage 2 kidney failure). We also have 2 chihuahuas (one elderly with a lame leg after several surgeries and the other one young and healthy). I am still working from home. My husband is a disabled vet. I spend nearly all my time and money caring for other people and animals.  I am slowing down because of some injuries to my feet over the past few years, lack of energy, and generally unfit. I go to the doctor and he tells me I am in good physical health (although he appears surprised) and I ask him about Qsymia. He agrees that I would be better off if I could lose the weight and prescribes me the meds in Qsymia ((phentermine and topiramate).

I should mention that I bought a FitBit Wireless Activity and Sleep Monitor and Aria Wi-Fi scale and started paying attention to my weight about 60 days ago. I lost 5 pounds on my own. I tried to go up and down the stairs more and walk more (especially on the weekends). 

I was very anxious about taking the drugs so I don't take them the first week I get them because I am on-call. The one drug can interfere with my sleep and I cannot take that risk while I am on-call (or at least that is what I tell myself). I finally started today. With all the anxiety I had a restless nights sleep last night. When I got up this morning I kicked the door frame coming out of the bathroom and appear to have broken my pinkie toe (big, fat, purple, painful, mess). Now it is late at night and I thought about writing a blog to document my weight loss journey. When I was looking on the internet for information on this medication, what to expect, and what to do, I found a lot about other weight loss techniques and experiences, but not this specifically. I also think it is important because I am sure I am not the only one who leads a very busy, stressful life that does not really leave time for gym memberships and strict diets.

Day one on this medication and I had no adverse reactions. I took the pills at 8:30 AM and ate a chocolate chip granola bar at 9:00 AM. I went and got my hair done, took care of the cats, dogs, and family members. Sat around on the computer due to the broken toe and didn't eat lunch. For dinner I had 2 slices of Domino's Philly cheese steak pizza six bread bites. It's 11 PM and I am going to have some strawberries before bed.

I will do a better job of documenting the medication, food, exercise, etc. in the upcoming posts.